The lion of Gripsholm's castle

In the 18:th century, a wild animal was the coolest thing you could give as a gift. That´s why King Frederick I of Sweden got a real lion from the Bey of Algiers in 1731. When the lion died they had it stuffed, and from the side looks pretty grand, doesn´t it?

The problem was that when the taxidermist was signed the mission, the only thing left of the lion was skin and a pile of bones. This, combined with the fact that the taxidermist only had the vaguest idea of what lions really looks like, made the once so noble lion appear like this when it was stuffed:

Not entirely unlike the kind but stupid dog Dug from the Pixar movie "Up", isn´t it?

This irresistible lion has got his own fan group on Facebook, and in the time of writing, it has more than 2500 members that makes wonderful photoshop works like this:


For the swedish readers: Jag har översatt mitt gamla inlägg efter som flera utländska sajter har länkat till en kackigt Google-översatt version av det.